Burner for oxyacetylene welding and/or cutting

ABSTRACT

The gas welding and cutting torch comprises an elongated handle having a handle body. The handle body contains axially directed bores which are coupled to a gas supply by means of replaceable conduit pieces. The outlet end of each conduit piece that projects into the bore is shaped into a valve seat and is controlled by a conical sealing disc. The sealing disc is seated in a cage which is integral with a guiding member of a movable valve stem. The valve stem is arranged for axial movement within the bore; the guiding member of the valve stem has a threaded peripheral portion which is in engagement with a coaxially arranged hand control ring. The hand control ring is disposed in a recess intersecting the bore, and drives the valve stem and thus the sealing disc back and forth against the valve seat. The valve stem is provided with a central longitudinal passage for passing through the gas from the valve seat to a replaceable welding nozzle. The guiding member of the valve stem is sealed at each side of the recess and is spring loaded to avoid the backlash in the driving thread.

United States Patent Diehl et al. 1 Feb. 15, 1972 [54] BURNER FOROXYACETYLENE 1,879,631 9/1932 Mott et al. ..239/413 WELDING AND/ORCUTTING 2,286,192 651942 Aitchison et al.. ..266/23 P 3,111,980 11 1963S ies .239 581 [72] Inventors: Edmund Diehl, Frankfurt am Main: p

'Iraugott (lutermann, ()ber-Rodcn, primary Examiner Gera]d A. DostWaldacker, both ofGcrmany v A"omey Emest Marmorek [73] Assignee: MesserGriesheim (imbll, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ABSTRACT [22] Fil d; F b,19, 1970 The gas welding and cutting torch comprises an elongated handlehaving a handle body. The handle body contains axi- [21 1 Appl' l2668ally directed bores which are coupled to a gas supply by means ofreplaceable conduit pieces. The outlet end of each conduit [30] ForeignA li ti n P i it D t piece that projects into the bore is shaped into avalve seat and is controlled by a conical sealing disc. The sealing discis Feb. 27, 1969 Germany up 19 09 808.9 seated in a g which is integralwith a g g member of a movable valve stem. The valve stem is arrangedfor axial [52] US. Cl ..266/23 P, 239/413, 239/530, movement within thebore; the guiding member of the valve [51 l Int Cl stem has a threadedperipheral portion which is in engagement with acoaxiany manged handcontrol ring The hand control [58] Field of Search ..266/23 R, 23 P,239l4zlgl5s3gl, ring is disposed in a recess intersecting the bore anddrives the valve stem and thus the sealing disc back and forth againstthe [56] Re em Cited valve seat. The valve stem is provided with acentral longitu r es dinal passage for passing through the gas from thevalve seat to UNITED STATES PATENTS a replaceable welding nozzle. Theguiding member of the valve stem rs sealed at each slde of the recessand IS spring 1 ,404,01 1 1/ 1922 Coberly ..266/23 P waded to'avoid thebacklash in the driving thread 1,453,385 5/1923 Dzutsoff..... Re 16.3073/1926 McCutcheon ..239/530 4 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures BURNER FOROXYACETYLENE WELDING AND/OR CUTTING This invention relates generally togas welding and/or gas cutting. More particularly, this inventionrelates to an autogenous torch of the type which has a handle withcontrol valves for a fuel gas and oxygen, and for supporting areplaceable welding nozzle.

Prior art welding torches have a handle which is provided with laterallyprojecting stems and handwheels of the gas control valves. Thedisadvantage of such known arrangement resides in that at restrictedwelding conditions such as, for example, among a plurality of closelyside-by-side arranged pipes, the welding manipulation is extremelydifficult, if not impossible. For this reason, it is frequentlynecessary in practice, to disconnect the welding torch from thegas-supplying hoses in order that the latter might be reinstalledseparately, from different sides of the structure to be welded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One of the objects of this invention is,therefor, to provide a welding torch which is designed without anylaterally protruding control parts.

Another object of this invention is to provide a handle for the weldingtorch, which is reduced in size, especially in its effective diameter.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a welding torchwhich can be manufactured and assembled with minimum costs.

According to this invention, the above objects are attained, in awelding torch having a disconnectable nozzle insert and a handle withgas supply conduits, by arranging the stems for the gas control valveswithin the body of the handle and by directing these stems substantiallyin parallel with the longitudinal axis of the handle body.

By this novel arrangement it is now possible to locate the hand controlrings for respective stems in such a manner as to only negligibly exceedthe surface of the handle body. As a consequence, the gas welding torchof this invention can be reduced in diameter and easily manipulated evenin restricted working spaces, or at very difficult positions. The dangerthat the quality of resulting welding seams will be impaired due tounfavorable conditions for the manipulation with the torch is therebyconsiderably eliminated.

In a further development of this invention, it has been suggested thatboth the valve stems and the control members thereof be located withinthe handle of the torch. in this way it is insured that no valvespindles or stems with associated hand controls will increase theeffective diameter of the torch. Consequently, there will occur nobendings of the valve stems or damages of the hand control members dueto rough working conditions. The maximum transverse sectional dimensionof the torch handle can be substantially reduced in comparison withprior art welding torches of this type.

In a preferred modification of this invention, which is particularlyadvantageous with regard to the production, the axes of the valve stemsand the axes of the correlated gas conduits are in alignment with eachother. At the same time, the axes of respective conduits are preferablyarranged parallel to the axis of the torch handle.

In a further development of this invention, the handle body is providedwith longitudinal bores communicating with respective gas conduits, theedge of the conduit opening in this bore being adapted as a valve seat;an elongated stem body is movably disposed within the bore and supportsat the end thereof opposite to the valve seat a valve sealing member.The stem body is moved preferably against a tension spring which abutsagainst the edge of the conduit opening. Since only one bore is requiredfor the coupled valve and conduit, the production process can be thusvery simple, and complicated structures of valves in the housing of thetorch handle are thereby completely eliminated. Similarly, both theassembly and the replacement of respective structural elements aregreatly facilitated. The application of the tension spring is especiallyadvantageous in case of threaded stems, since at any phase of thedisplacement of the valve stem the thread backlash of the engaging handcontrol knob is thereby compensated and, as a result, an arbitrarilyfine adjustment can be attained.

The longitudinal arrangement of the valve stems according to thisinvention renders the possibility to modify the torch handleconfiguration according to the novel arrangement of the hand controlknobs or rings. For example. it is possible to place each hand controlknob or ring into a recess in the body of the handle and rotate thesecontrol members around the axis of the valve stem. To avoid frictionbetween the metal side surfaces of each control ring and the housing ofthe handle, slide rings are provided on these side surfaces. Inaddition, to seal the movable valve stems with regard to the gas conduitin the body of the handle, resilient seal rings are suggested to beplaced between the peripheral portions of the valve stem and the wall ofthe bore in the handle body.

In a particularly advantageous modification of the valve stem, thelatter is composed of two parts, namely of a guiding body and of a cagewhich supports the valve seal member. Moreover, a central passage isprovided in the guiding body of the valve stem. This passagecommunicates via oblique channels at one end in the guiding body and viathe bore portion around the aforementioned cage, with the valve seat inthe gas supply conduit. The opposite end of the passage is connectedthrough discharge means with the welding nozzle connector. Thisstructure has the advantage that the path of the gas flow is directed onthe shortest line through the valve stem portion. Consequently, thetraverse dimension of the torch handle can be reduced.

According to another feature of this invention, the valve seal member ismade in the form of a bolt which, with a certain clearance, is seated inthe cage coaxially with the longitudinal axis of the entire valve stem.The sealing end of the bolt is provided with a frustoconical valve disk,whereas the opposite end thereof in the cage has sphericalconfiguration. As. a result, certain deviations in the position of thevalve-sealing member with regard to the position of the valve seat canbe tolerated since these minor mounting inaccuracies which always mayoccur, are by this means automatically compensated and the sealingeffect is always insured.

According to still another feature of this invention, the conduit piecewhich comprises the valve seat is removably connected to the centralbore in the handle body and it is secured therein by means of a lockingring. Such a removable arrangement of the conduit piece enables that aleaky valve seat can be readily replaced. The torch handle can,therefore, be arbitrarily increased in length, since no refinishingoperations in the valve seats are necessary after the assembly of thetorch handle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING In order that theinvention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, itwill now be described more fully with reference to the accompanyingdrawing, in which FIG. 1 is a schematic side-elevational view of thewelding torch handle according to this invention; and

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view of the upper portion of the torchhandle as shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 illustrates a torch handle 17 having ahandle body 10. At the right hand end of the handle body 10 there areprovided couplings 11 and 12 for the gas supply conduits. At theleft-hand end of the handle body 10, a screw coupling 13 for theattachment of a torch nozzle insert, is operatively arranged. For thereason of simplification, this nozzle insert itself is not shown in thedrawing.

The coupling 12 serves for the connection of a hose for the fuel gassupply, and the coupling 11 connects the hose for oxygen. The gasconduit pieces 16 that extend from the rear end of the handle body 10,are covered by a tubular holding envelope 14. The holding envelope 14 issecured to the handle body by screws 15.

With reference to FIG. 2, one gas is fed to the torch nozzle through theconduit piece 16, a valve unit 27 and an outlet channel 18. In FIG. 2there is shown in detail the structural arrangement of the control valveunit in a single gas-feeding channel, namely in the oxygen channel,only. The arrangement of the fuel-gas-feeding channel correspondssubstantially to that as shown in FIG. 2 and to avoid the unnecessaryduplication in the drawing, it is not illustrated therein.

The torch handle body 10 contains longitudinal bores 19 extending fromthe right-hand side in the direction parallel to the axis of the torchhandle body 10. A connecting conduit piece 16 from the coupling 11 isconnected to the inlet opening of the bore 19. To hold the conduit piece16 in a fixed position within the bore 19, the connecting end of thebore 19 is slightly increased in diameter to produce a conical step 21.The increased end portion of the bore 19 is provided with a thread 20.The corresponding connecting end of the conduit 16 is provided with ashoulder 23 which is adjusted to the increased clearance of the endportion of the bore 19 and abuts against the step 21. In addition, theleading portion of the shoulder 23 is matched in diameter to theclearance of the rest of the bore 19, and is provided on its peripherywith a sealing ring 46 which insures the seal against the wall of thebore 19. A threaded locking ring 22 is screwed into the thread at theinlet of the bore 19, to force the slightly projecting tail portion ofthe shoulder 23 against the step 21, thereby locking the conduit piece16 in its fixed position. The outlet end of the passage 24 in theconduit piece 16 is controlled by the valve unit 17. The edge of thewall of the conduit piece 16 is adjusted to form the seat 25 for thecooperation with a valve bolt 26. The valve bolt 26 is seated in a cage47 which projects from the guiding body portion of the valve stem 48.The end 28 of the valve bolt 26 that is enclosed within the cage 47 haspreferably a spherical shape, whereas the protruding sealing end of thevalve bolt is in the form of a frustoconical sealing disk 29. Since thevalve bolt 26 has a certain lateral clearance with respect to the insidewalls of the cage 47, the sealing action of the frustoconical sealingdisk is insured even if increased tolerances take place during theassembly of the torch head 17.

A tension spring 30 is disposed between the end of the shoulder 23 ofthe locked conduit piece 16 and the opposite end portion of the guidingbody of the valve stem 48. A traverse recess in the handle body 10intersects a portion of the bore 19. A wall portion of the guiding bodyof the valve stem 48 that is situated in the area of the recess 35 isprovided with a thread 33. A coaxially arranged hand control ring 34 isdisposed for rotation in the recess 35 and engages with the thread 33 ofthe valve stem 48. The hand control ring 34 is dimensioned in such amanner as to project above the surface of the handle body 10 only withinthe range of the wall thickness of the tubular holding envelope 14.

To insure a rectilinear movement of the valve stem 48 or, in otherwords, to prevent an angular displacement thereof during the rotation ofthe hand control ring 34, the valve stem 48 must be equipped with aguiding pin 44 which is firmly secured in the guiding body of the valvestem 48. This guiding pin 44 is in turn guided in an axially directedbore 45 in the handle body 10 at the end of the bore 19.

According to the sense of rotation of the hand control ring 34, thevalve stem 48 can be thus displaced as far to the right as to seal bymeans of the valve bolt 26 the valve seat 25, or it can be removed tothe left side to open this valve seat. To prevent a metal on metalfriction between the hand control ring 34 and the opposite walls of therecess 35, the sidewalls of the hand control ring 34 are provided withannular grooves 36 which support slide rings 37. The slide rings 37 arepreferably made of a wear resistant material such as, for example, ofthe commercially available plastic known under the trade name Hostaflon.

The guiding portion of the valve stem 48 according to this invention isfurther provided with an axial passage 40 which, at the outlet endthereof, communicates via the outlet end portion of the longitudinalbore 19 and via a channel 18 with a mixing chamber 42; the inlet end ofthe passage 40 is connected through oblique channels 41 with thatportion of the bore 19 which surrounds the cage 47 (space portion 43).In order to seal the outlet end portion of the bore 19 and the spaceportion 43 from the recess 35, annular grooves 38a and 38b are createdin the outer wall of the guiding portion of the valve stem 48 at eachside of the recess 35, and provided with sealing rings 39a and 39b whichhermetically seal the resulting airgap.

The tension spring 30 which is positioned in the space portion 43 toload axially the valve stem 48, compensates the backlash in the thread33 at any position of the hand control ring 34. As a result, a lineadjustment of the position of the valve 17 is secured.

We wish it to be understood that we do not desire to be limited to theexact details of construction shown and described, for obviousmodifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

Having thus described the invention, what we claim as new and desire tobe secured by Letters Patent, is as follows.

1. A torch for gas welding and cutting, comprising in combination,

a torch handle having a handle body;

gas supply coupling means disposed at one end of said torch handle forbeing connected to a gas supply;

torch nozzle-coupling means provided at the opposite end of said torchhandle for receiving a blowpipe head;

gas conduit means extending within said torch handle substantially inparallel with the longitudinal axis of said torch handle to connect saidgas supply coupling means with said torch nozzle-coupling means;

valve means having a movable valve stem member for controlling thegasflow in said conduit means;

said movable valve stem member being disposed within said torch handlefor being moved substantially in parallel with the longitudinal axis ofsaid torch handle; hand control means operatively coupled with saidmovable stem member to control the axial displacement of said valvemeans, said hand control means being arranged substantially within thespatial area of said torch handle,

said torch handle being provided with longitudinal bores extending inaxial direction with said handle body and with conduit pieces connectingsaid bores with said gas supply coupling means;

said valve stem member being operatively arranged for axial movement ineach bore;

the inlet portions of said bores being coupled with outlet portions ofsaid conduit pieces, respectively;

said valve stem members being provided with valve-sealing means adaptedfor the sealing of said outlet portions of said conduit pieces,

said handle body being provided with recesses for receiving said handcontrol means, said recesses being as deep as to intersect said axialbores, respectively; said hand control means being in operativeengagement with said movable valve stem member in the resulting area ofintersection of said bores with said recesses,

wherein said hand control means is a control ring arranged coaxially onsaid valve stem member, the contact surfaces of said control ring and ofsaid valve stem member being threaded.

2. A torch according to claim 1 wherein the end portion of said valvestem member opposite to said valve seat is reduced in diameter andprovided with an axial boring to form a cage portion for receiving saidvalve sealing means; the remaining guiding portion of said valve stemmember having a central said bolt opposite to said valve seat beingprovided with a matching conical surface whereas the other end thereofwithin said cage has a spherical configuration to allow certain lateraltolerance of movement of said bolt within said cage.

4. A torch according to claim 2 wherein said guiding portion of saidvalve stem means is provided with sealing rings at each side of saidarea of intersection of said bore with said recess.

1. A torch for gas welding and cutting, comprising in combination, atorch handle having a handle body; gas supply coupling means disposed atone end of said torch handle for being connected to a gas supply; torchnozzle-coupling means provided at the opposite end of said torch handlefor receiving a blowpipe head; gas conduit means extending within saidtorch handle substantially in parallel with the longitudinal axis ofsaid torch handle to connect said gas supply coupling means with saidtorch nozzle-coupling means; valve means having a movable valve stemmember for controlling the gas flow in said conduit means; said movablevalve stem member being disposed within said torch handle for beingmoved substantially in parallel with the longitudinal axis of said torchhandle; hand control means operatively coupled with said movable stemmember to control the axial displacement of said valve means, said handcontrol means being arranged substantially within the spatial area ofsaid torch handle, said torch handle being provided with longitudinalbores extending in axial direction with said handle body and withconduit pieces connecting said bores with said gas supply couplingmeans; said valve stem member being operatively arranged for axialmovement in each bore; the inlet portions of said bores being coupledwith outlet portions of said conduit pieces, respectively; said valvestem members being provided with valve-sealing means adapted for thesealing of said outlet portions of said conduit pieces, said handle bodybeing provided with recesses for receiving said hand control means, saidrecesses being as deep as to intersect said axial bores, respectively;said hand control means being in operative engagement with said movablevalve stem member in the resulting area of intersection of said boreswith said recesses, wherein said hand control means is a control ringarranged coaxially on said valve stem member, the contact surfaces ofsaid control ring and of said valve stem member being threaded.
 2. Atorch according to claim 1 wherein the end portion of said valve stemmember opposite to said valve seat is reduced in diameter and providedwith an axial boring to form a cage portion for receiving said valvesealing means; the remaining guiding portion of said valve stem memberhaving a central passage extending in longitudinal directiontherethrough, said passage communicating at the cage end of said valvestem member through a bore portion around said cage with said valve seatand, at the end portion of said bore, said passage communicating withsaid nozzle-coupling means to pass the gas flow therethrough.
 3. A torchaccording to claim 2 wherein said valve sealing means is in the form ofa bolt which is seated with certain clearance within the boring of saidcage; the projecting end of said bolt opposite to said valve seat beingprovided with a matching conical surface whereas the other end thereofwithin said cage has a spherical configuration to allow certain lateraltolerance of movement of said bolt within said cage.
 4. A torchaccording to claim 2 wherein said guiding portion of said valve stemmeans is provided with sealing rings at each side of said area ofintersection of said bore with said recess.